Setting the Stage – The Benefits of Investing in Home Staging

Selling your home and fetching the best price for your investment means doing an overall tidy up, attending to the garden and for most these days, it means employing staging professionals.

Staging a home for sale is a practice that has gained momentum amongst a challenging and competitive market. For many, it garners interest from higher quality potential buyers. Before engaging with staging professionals though, you really must emotionally detach yourself from your property. Now, we know this is hard – especially when your hired help is altering the entire interior of your home which may make you feel uncomfortable but it’s vital you don’t take any amendments personal. They are simply there to do a job. It’s also necessary to avoid resisting the recommendations your staging professional is trying to implement. Hence the importance of detaching yourself from your property.

The reality is, the moment you commit to marketing your home for sale, you need to commit to transforming it into a place that potential buyers can picture themselves in.

We asked a leading stylist of home staging in Melbourne, what the benefits are in investing in home staging and here’s what they had to say. Hope it helps!

Buyers Need To Imagine Themselves Living In Your Home

Your home speaks to you, but is it speaking to potential buyers? Most sellers tend to take the staging process personally, however – how we live is not how we sell. Our homes represent who we are; they are living proof of our likes, dislikes and our beliefs. They showcase our belongings which we have accumulated over our life and are so important to us. The aim and primary benefit of staging however is to make the home speak to as many other people as possible via a positive means – without them learning everything about your life, interests, hobbies, etc. Don’t get us wrong, you are proud of your rooster collection no doubt! Each rooster acquired over time from garage sales has a special meaning to you and you’ve painstakingly kept the theme going in every room…but to your buyer, it is a collection of things that’s drawing their attention away from the inspection.

The same can be said for personal photos, the oversized painting that looks like an artist should have given away art, the bookcase filled with old albums dating back to when records were first invented…yes these are all gold to be treasured, but they will serve only as a sidetrack to a potential buyer.

Don’t Let A Potential Buyer Walk Away Thinking “That Was The Home With Roosters In It”

Buyers tend to label homes they inspect, just like agents do. So, you can either be the “house with the beautiful, original architraves” or the “house with over one hundred Roosters and a deer taxidermy mounted on the wall.” Both evoke memorable reactions, however unless the buyer is one who breeds roosters or is a taxidermist, you will be better served staging your home so your home doesn’t get negatively labeled.

You Hate Your Clutter, So Will Your Prospective Buyers

We all accumulate a stack of unopened mail, old keys we don’t use, even bits and bobs that make no sense so it all gets thrown into a junk drawer in the kitchen. Meanwhile, open the bathroom cabinet and we’re lucky everything hasn’t fallen out on top of us as we open it! Clutter is another form of distraction to potential buyers but even worse, it makes it appear as though you’re property doesn’t provide sufficient or adequate space or storage solutions. Kitchen countertops are other serial offenders as they lend themselves to being permanent homes to toasters, a coffee pot, a block of knives, a canister of utensils and a fruit bowl. Whilst this is all functional – it can come across as you’re lacking cabinet space so stagers will not only redecorate but will also declutter improving the overall look and feel of your home.

Professional home stagers are paid to bring out the best in your home and it will be for your benefit in the end, isn’t that benefit enough?